The Portrayal of Light and Dark in the Play Macbeth by William Shakespeare

In the play ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare, light and dark imagery is used throughout the story in order to show the difference and symbolism between good and evil. Light represents innocence, truth and purity while darkness is used to represent cruelty, guilt and corruption. Towards the end of the play, Shakespeare correlates the ideas of both lightness and darkness to portray life and death. Ultimately, they represent good and evil. Shakespeare uses these two themes to drive the plot and story forward in order to create conflict, twists and symbolism.

William Shakespeare's Macbeth is an ominous tale that illustrates the danger in violating the Great Chain of Being, the hierarchy of things in God's ordered universe. The Chain ranked all of creation and human society as well. It ranked kings above nobles and nobles above the poor. When Macbeth murdered King Duncan and assumed the throne, the Chain was violated and chaos resulted. The atmosphere of the play symbolized this resulting turmoil. Specifically, light and darkness were used to exemplify the unnatural chaos and ominous tone of the work. The role of light and the role of darkness relates to the chaos resulting from the violation of the Great Chain of Being.

Imagine a man, digging a grave addressed to him using his own two bare hands. Shakespeare’s Macbeth takes readers back to a medieval Scottish time period where nobility still reigns. Shakespeare’s play is the ultimate display of how man’s desires lead to self-destruction by taking fate into their own hands. Though Macbeth is a highly respected warrior, he is easily persuaded by the people and forces around him to carry out malicious acts that eventually lead to his downfall. Actions speak louder than words, and throughout the play, Macbeth demonstrates dark and evil tendencies that overshadow the good judgment we perceive him upholding by having the titles of Thane and kinsman.

In the beginning of the tragedy, Macbeth, there are three witches who only appear when darkness, thunderstorms, and lightning occur. Such as when the darkness arises evil things begin to happen. The three witches in the play first appear saying “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or rain” (1.1.1-2). This signals how the witches only appear when bad weather is occurring, this presents how the beginning of how the tragic play begins.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the theme of light versus dark is shown throughout the story. In the play, Duncan's role, King of Scotland, was quickly taken from him by Macbeth, when the three witches prophesied his future of becoming the next King. At the beginning of the plot, Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to kill Duncan. However, as the play progresses, Macbeth starts to take on her evil role, continuing to kill others, especially those who are his friends. The conflict between light and dark is displayed through the characterization of Lady Macbeth portraying dark to light, Macbeth’s numerous murder scenes, light and dark in literary devices, and through the weather. In the book Macbeth, light versus dark plays a role in shaping the characters and influencing the true meaning of good versus evil.

Living in darkness (sin) is without knowing or seeing God. In the play Macbeth, he battles with darkness. Macbeth is brought down by his own wrong doings. His ambition and deceitfulness were the elements of darkness that lead him to his ruin. After a chain of events evil and darkness starts to grow inside of Macbeth. Ambition starts to fill his mind and soul, and he asks for the darkness to hide the evil thoughts that are brewing in his mind. The craving and drive to have the crown of the king drives Macbeth into a dark place where evil resides. Macbeth all throughout the play lost sight of the light (which is god) and starts to live in sin and he doesn’t know repent from his wrong doings but hopes that the darkness will had all evil thoughts

Lady Macbeth plans to kill Duncan and she wants to rid her sense of morality and righteousness, so it will not affect her when she murders Duncan. Lady Macbeth asks to be stripped of her feminine attributes and to be merciless. This means that darkness is evil and Lady Macbeth is asking for the evil will to murder.The darkness plays a role in determining the actions of the characters. It also shows the raw inner emotions of the characters. In reference to that point,as Gentlewoman and Doctor observe Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking habits, Gentlewoman states “Why, it stood by her: she has light by her/ continually; tis her command” (5.1.20-21). Lady Macbeth subconsciously stays near the light to keep her from the dark she has created. This evidence shows that dark equals guilt which Lady Macbeth feels and attempts to avoid. The light resembles purity which Lady Macbeth is trying to stay close to, but can not. This reinforces that darkness in the characters can give us the inner thoughts and emotions. This supports that darkness is a major symbol in the play that gives

William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ is one of the most known and most popular tragedies. Macbeth receives a prophecy from three witches that one day he will become King. Fueled by his ambition and by his wife, Macbeth then murders King Duncan and takes the throne for himself. He is then broken by guilt and paranoia. This story has many dark moments and often talk about witches and evil and death. There are many symbols that can be taken from William Shakespeare ‘Macbeth’. This assignment will talk about Act 2, Scene 1 and will discuss the symbols of light vs darkness, the dagger and sleep, and do a complete written analysis of this selection, and consider the meaning of Psychoanalytic theoretical approach, and does it alter the way we see the text.

Light and darkness are, immediately recognized and thought of as, universal symbols that have been used for centuries. These iconic symbols help us to portray the good and evil in something or someone. This concept of light and dark, night and day, and good and bad is portrayed throughout Shakespeare’s play “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Shakespeare uses these contrasting themes in order to generate an image of the assorted conflicts, twists, and symbols in the scheme of the story. The entire tragedy revolves around the effects of such events and the collision, of the deeper meaning, between what light and dark symbolizes.

In the play of Macbeth the theme of light versus dark comes to life in many different forms, one of which being nature and how it portrays what is going on in the play. One of the numerous examples is in act one, scene one of the play, in which we first see the witches it is stormy outside. During this scene in the play it begins to thunder and lightning whilst the witches are on stage. The idea of thunderstorms is a dark and mysterious act within itself, in horror movies it will thunderstorm and the killer will progress towards its target in the dark and thundering night. The witches are not light people they are heavily evil and dark, the nature portrays that with the storming. An additional example is in Act __ scene __ where the witches

Macbeth shows that he relies on darkness and evil in his next speech, "Come, seeling night, scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day and with the bloody and invisible hand cancel and tear to pieces that great bond which keeps me pale. ”(3.2.46-49); he needs evil to remove any consequence, so he will be able to overcome his guilt. Macbeth is later on the brink of insanity when he imagines that he is seeing the ghost of Banquo. His paranoia and guilt are causing him to loose his mind. near the end of the scene, Macbeth imagines himself as a river of blood so if he was going to stop it would be harder to go back than to stay with the current.

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most mystifying plays and is a study of human nature. The theme of appearance versus reality is apparent in Macbeth. It’s filled with numerous, notable, and significant scenes, including when King Duncan visits the Macbeth’s home, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, and Macbeth’s dagger soliloquy. They provide raw, psychological insight into the character of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, showcasing the differing characteristics between the two characters. A quote that has developed synonym with Macbeth is, “Fair is foul and foul is fair” (1.1.11) which introduces deceptiveness, debut, and one of the most important themes of this tragedy, appearance versus reality. Shakespeare uses numerous characters and situations to emphasize the confusion between appearance and reality, the real and the surreal, the legitimate and the imposturous. Emphasized in these scenes and throughout the play, Shakespeare successfully portrays the misalignment between appearance and reality.

The theme of appearance versus reality is very important in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The characters of Duncan, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth are unable to differentiate between appearance and reality, resulting in tragic consequences. Poor judgment is evidenced by Duncan, who trusts Macbeth too much; Lady Macbeth, who is fooled by the witches; and Macbeth, who is tricked repeatedly by others.

Without darkness this scene would be as effective in showing how evil the witches really are. The evil deeds being done here are so bad that the cover of dark is needed in order for any human to carry them out. “Evil which is being done is so horrible that it would blast the sight on it; so that darkness, or partial blinding, is necessary to carry it out” Without the darkness the witches would not be able to do the evil cruel thing they are doing to Macbeth and the others. The darkness of the rain and the thunder make us think that the witches are evil and up to no good. “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or rain?”(I.i.1) The fact that it is stormy and dark adds a whole new mindset to what might come from their prophecies. The witches tell Macbeth some crazy stuff and because it is stormy and crazy it can only be assumed that evil things must be done to achieve the witches prophecies. “All hail, Macbeth, the future king!” (I.ii.50) Macbeth now has it in his mind that he will be king and the darkness only phases him

All of the remarkable scenes take place at night or in some dark spot; for instance, the vision of the dagger, the murder of Duncan, the Murder of Banquo, and Lady Macbeth's sleep walking. Darkness, specifically in Shakespearean terms, is the time when the traveler hastens to reach safety in his inn, when Banquo rides homeward to meet his assassins; furthermore, it is the time when the wolf howls, the owl screams, and when murder steals forth to his work. In 'Macbeth' darkness symbolizes many things. First, and most important, it stands for the evil and death in the play. The darkness could partially blind out all of the horrible things that occur in the night and thus they become secretive and even more dangerous then if the same action is committed during the day. Secondly, the darkness shows one of Lady Macbeth's weaknesses: her fear of the dark. In the play, phrases of fear escape from lips even in her sleep. She believes darkness to be the place of torment. Within the whole drama, the sun seems to shine only twice. First, in the beautiful but ironical passage when Duncan sees the swallows flirting round the castle of death. Another time being when at the close of the avenging army gathers to rid the earth of its shame. Therefore, the reader can conclude that Shakespeare portrays darkness to